Captain James T. Kirk Character Feature

Captain James Tiberius Kirk is one of the few names that most people, fan or not, relate to the science fiction tv and film series, “Star Trek.“ The human captain of the USS Enterprise for Star Fleet, a man dedicated to his crew and friends, and a well-known womanizer, Kirk is all of these things and more. First he was portrayed by actor William Shatner, then by Chris Pine ins the film reboots. All in all, Captain Kirk is an iconic character in the science fiction world.

In the original series, Kirk was born March 22, 2233 in Riverside, Iowa to George and Winona Kirk. He also had a brother, George Samuel, who was killed in the episode “Operation Annihilate!” and left behind 3 children. While he primarily stayed on Earth, Kirk also lived on the planet Tarsus VI, where he witnessed a massacre of 4,000 colonists by dictator Kodos the Executioner (this was mentioned in the episode “The Conscience of the King”).

During his training at Star Fleet Academy, Kirk received a lot of attention for beating the Kobayashi Marutest, which was programmed to be unwinnable. However, by reprogramming the program to beatable, Kirk was the first to beat the test. After completing training, Kirk was stationed on USS Republic for more training, where he was made a lieutenant junior grade and brought back to the Academy to train other students. After graduating, Kirk served in the USS Farragut as a lieutenant under Captain Garrovick. However, while commanding his first planetary survey, the Farragut was attacked by an alien threat that killed Garrovick and other crew members. Thankfully, Kirk survived and was promoted to captain.

Kirk was then put in charge of the USS Enterprise, becoming the youngest captain to be put in charge of a Star Fleet ship. With other crew member Spock (Leonard Nimoy) as his second in command, Kirk and the Eterprise begin a 5-year mission to discover uncharted space, 3 of those years being depicted in the original TV series. He would also be seen in the 6 films that came after the series end.

It was not until the film “Star Trek Generations” that Kirk was found to be living in a timeless place called the Nexus, having previously been declared dead. Found by the Enterprise‘s new captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), he convinces Kirk to leave the nexus to stop a villain named Tolian Soran (Malcolm McDowell) from blowing up a sun. They were able to stop Soran, but Kirk was mortally wounded. James T. Kirk would die and be burried by Picard on the planet Veridian III.

In the reboot, Kirk’s origin differ slightly, as he is born on a escape pod fleeing the destruction of the USS Kelvin with Kirk’s father George on board. When he is a young man, he is dared by his father’s old comrad, Captain Christopher Pike (Bruce Greenwood) to join Star Fleet, which he does. Otherwise, most of Kirk’s character stays the same. “Star Trek Beyond” will be coming this July 22.